Murphy Hosts Noon Meeting With Rutgers Faculty, Admin As Strike Begins

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — Gov. Phil Murphy will host a sit-down meeting at noon Monday between faculty and administration as Rutgers professors begin an unprecedented teaching strike.

Starting at 9 a.m. Monday, Rutgers professors and faculty went on strike, for the first time in Rutgers' 257-year history. This means the vasty majority of classes for Rutgers' 67,000 students are canceled for the foreseeable future, according to Rutgers' faculty union spokesman Alan Maass.

A few Rutgers professors have chosen not to join the union, and they are apparently still teaching class this week.

This is the largest faculty strike in the history of U.S. colleges and universities.

"The Governor has called all parties to the statehouse today," said Rutgers spokeswoman Dory Devlin. "We are encouraged and welcome his leadership and are hopeful we can quickly come to a resolution of the remaining outstanding issues."

The governor hastily arranged the meeting shortly after the strike was announced Monday morning. Murphy will sit down with Rutgers administration and faculty union president Rebecca Givan.

Maass said that so far, Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway has never attended a labor negotiation meeting — but maybe that will change Monday now that Murphy has entered the dispute.

"Holloway has not attended one single bargaining sessions, and we've repeatedly invited to attend," said Masss. "Maybe he will so this time. David Cohen, the head of university labor relations, has been doing it. And Givan will be there, plus several more representatives from the faculty union."

Holloway released this long statement to students Monday, called "What to Know During a Strike." He encouraged students to do all their outstanding school work and go to the few classes that are still being taught by non-unionized professors.

However, in that statement Holloway called the strike "unlawful," which union members told the Bergen Record they were "dismayed" to hear him say, saying there is no statute or law making it illegal for public workers to strike.

They said Holloway, who started as a professor, is now choosing to "misinform" the public.

Maass said he hopes the decision by Gov. Murphy to enter the stand-off will be favorable to the faculty union.

"(Murphy) talks about the importance of labor and unions, so we're hoping he gets the administration's attention in ways that they haven't paid in the past," he said.

Murphy has so far not commented publicly on the strike.

But Speaker of the state Assembly Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex) said Monday morning he was "disappointed" it has come to a strike.

"I am disappointed Rutgers has not concluded an agreement with its unions," said Coughlin. "I am pleased to see Governor Murphy bring everyone to the table at this critical time of the school year for students, and I urge all sides to remain at the table until a deal is reached.”

Rutgers college and graduate students are not attending classes, doing work or taking exams. Maass said he has no idea how long the strike will last.

"We hope this will be very brief so we can get back to the classrooms and the labs," he said Monday morning. "It all depends on the university at this point. We've had proposals on the table they've barely responded to for the past 10 months."

Maass said one of the most important things the union is asking for as salary increases for graduate student teachers and workers, and salary increases for adjunct faculty. He said full-time tenured faculty, who make much more than adjunct lecturers, are united with their lower-paid colleagues and that they too will not be teaching classes this week in solidarity.

"What we want is a significant salary increase for the most vulnerable of us," said Maass. "Graduate workers don't make a living wage in one of the expensive regions of the country and Rutgers adjunct faculty are barely scraping by."

student solidarity! undergrad musicians just showed up to play music for the picket lines on cook doug 💛💛💛💛 pic.twitter.com/8xI23uLL6d

— r1coalition (@r1coalition) April" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/r1coalitio... 10, 2023

"We stand in solidarity with Rutgers faculty and staff who are striking for the dignity, security and professional respect they deserve," said NJEA President Sean Spiller, who is also the mayor of Montclair. “The faculty and staff of Rutgers University provide a critical service to New Jersey families and are key players in our state’s success. New Jersey is a national leader in both PreK-12 and higher education, and we need to respect and reward the professionals who make that happen at every level."

The three Rutgers faculty unions are the Rutgers AAUP-AFT, the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union and AAUP-BHSNJ. They represent more than 15,000 Rutgers faculty in total. Faculty contracts expired last summer. Here is their list of what they are asking for: https://rutgersaaup.org/media-...

Read more: Rutgers University Strike: What It Means (April 10)

Rutgers Professors Agree To Strike If New Contracts Cannot Be Reached (March 10)